What is a mix? What is a megamix? What is a remix? What is a DJ-Set
Mix? What is a Live Mix? How live is a live mix? What's a Studiomix

The way I see it. You have LIVE mixers and Studio
mixers. Live mixers are those DJ's who mix tracks together in a club or on Party's,
Studiomixers make technically and qualitative (sound, not originality) better mixes
because they are made in a studio. A DJ can be both. Live Mixing And studiomixing. Look at
Ben Liebrand, DJ Erick E, The Klubbheads, Mental Theo, Olav Basoski, DJ Armin van Buuren,
Paul Elstak (and I could go on forever). In the 80s and early 90s most mixes avaliable on
CD where Studiomixes. Usually Yearmixes or Summermixes/Winter Editions. In the second
halve of the 90's and the beginning of the new millennium, more DJ-Set/Live Mixes came
popular.

A DJ Set mix is a mix like they are played in a
club. 20 tracks without intro and outtro, but mixed together like one big track. Sometimes
with a lot of creativity, but sometimes with very rude cuts. The DJ sets are usually
studio made mixes.
When a LIVE DJ Mix is presented it can be really live mixed or just a DJ
Set mix with some 'OOhs' and 'Yeah's' from 'the audience'. Don't get fooled.

A remix is a mix of one track, with added samples,
sounds, beats, vocals and instruments. The purpose of a remix is (apart from making money
:)) to make a version of the track in another style. Remixes can make a track more trancy,
housey, soulfull, latin, more funny or just more danceable. You can also see a remix as a
'tribute' to the original artists. Sometimes it is, sometimes it isn't and offcourse
everyone can have his own opinion about that.

A megamix is a studiomix with more than one track.
There are megamixes of one artist, one year, one 'theme' or just megamixes with tracks
that fitted together.

The first succesfull studio-mixer in Holland was Ben Liebrand. His 'In the Mix'-es
(1983-1986) where a couple of tracks mixed together for an hour and broascasted on dutch
radio.
You could see them as DJ-Set mixes I think. Later Ben started making remixes
(Minimixes) of one track or a couple of nice ones and from 1983 on he also made The
Grandmixes. Those where mixes in the true sense of the word. A mix which lasted an hour
and had 90-100 tracks. Lots of samples, loops and scratches made everything 'click'
together.
Ben got a lot of followers in Holland and a lot of them are still megamixing or producing
dance/trance-tracks. The men behind succesfull dance-acts like Twenty 4 Seven
(Ruud van Rijen), 2 brothers on the 4 th Floor (Bobby and Martin Boer), The
Sunclub (Dieter Kranenburg, Robin Albers), The Klubbheads (Koen
Groeneveld & Addie van der Zwan), Atlantic Ocean (Lex van coeverden),
Holy Noise (Hithouse/ Peter Slaghuis) and EGMA/Central Seven (Marcel
Theunissen) all started as megamixers for the 'Bond van Doorstarters'
(studiomixes) and/or 'AVRO's 3maal doordraai' (livemixes). And less
famous but very well known in the DJ-world: Olav Basoski and Bob
Snoeier.Also Rutger Kroese (Rutti), the producer behind Sat-R-Day and
other dutch R&B acts, Ege Van Krijsdijk (EGMA and dutch girlband
'Close 2 U).

Allmost all of these mixers have had megamixes released on LP's and
CD's. Dutch recordcompany's RamsHorn (the early years) and Arcade (the 90s) released lots
of megamixes in Holland. Titles like 'Turn Up The Bass Megamix', 'Turn up the Bass
Houseparty' where the 1st ones, later a lot of other recordcompanies joined in and flooded
the market with lots of other megamixes.